342 



FREMONT, JOHN CHARLES. 



streams, the spring of the Colorado of the Gulf of 

 California; and on the other was the Wind Kiver 

 valley, where were the heads of the Yellowstone 

 branch of the Missouri ; far to the north, we could 

 just discover the snowy heads of the Trois Tetons, 

 where were the sources of the Missouri and Columbia 

 rivers ; and at the southern extremity of the ridge, 

 the peaks were plainly visible, among which were 

 some of the springs of the Nebraska or Platte river. 

 Around us. the whole scene had one main, striking 

 feature, which was that of terrible convulsion. Par- 

 allel to its length, the ridge was split into chasms and 

 fissures, between which rose the thin lofty walls, 

 terminated with slender minarets and columns. Ac- 

 cording to the barometer, the little crest of the wall on 

 which we stood was 3,570 feet above that place, and 

 2,780 above the little lakes at the bottom, immediately 

 at our feet. Our camp at the Two Hills (an astro- 

 nomical station) bore south 3 east, which, with a 

 bearing afterward obtained from a fixed position, en- 

 abled us to locate the peak. The bearing' of the Trois 

 Tetons was north 50 west, and the direction of the 

 central ridge of the Wind River mountains south 39 

 east. The summit rock was gneiss, succeeded by 

 sienitic gneiss. Sienite and feldspar succeeded in 

 our descent to the snow line, where we found a felds- 

 pathic granite. I had remarked that the noise pro- 

 duced by the explosion of our pistols had the usual de- 

 gree of loudness, but was not in the least prolonged, 

 expiring almost instantaneously. 



Having now made what observations our means 

 afforded, we proceeded to descend. We had accom- 

 plished an object of laudable ambition, and beyond 

 the strict order of our instructions. We had climbed 

 the loftiest peak of the Kocky mountains, and looked 

 down upon the snow a thousand feet below ; and, 

 standing where never human foot had stood before, 

 felt the exultation of first explorers. Our coflee haa 

 been expended, but we now made a kind of tea from 

 the roots of the wild-cherry tree. 



23d. Yesterday evening we reached our encamp- 

 ment at Rock Independence, where I took some as- 

 tronomical observations. Here, not unmindful of 

 the custom of early travelers and explorers in our 

 country, 1 engraved on this rock of the far West a 

 symbol of the Christian faith. Among the thickly 

 inscribed names I made on the hard granite the im- 

 pression of a large cross, which I covered with a black 

 Separation of India-rubber well calculated to resist 

 e influence of wind and rain. It stands amid the 

 names of many who have long since found their way 

 to the grave, and for whom the huge rock is a giant 

 gravestone. One George Weymouth was sent out to 

 Maine by the Earl of Southampton, Lord Arundel, 

 and others ; and in the narrative of their discoveries, 

 he says : " The next day^ we ascended in our pinnace 

 that part of the river which lies more to the westward, 

 carrying with us a cross a thing never omitted by 

 any Christian traveler which we erected at the 

 ultimate end of our route." This was in the year 

 1605 ; and in 1842 I obeyed the feeling of early trav- 

 elers, and left the impression of the cross deeply en- 

 grayed on the vast rock 1,000 miles beyond the Mis- 

 sissippi, to which discoverers have given the national 

 name of Rock Independence. 



In obedience to my instructions to survey the river 

 Platte, if possible, I had determined to make an 

 attempt at this place. The India-rubber boat was 

 filled with air, placed in the water, and loaded with 

 what was necessary for our operations ; and I embarked 

 with Mr. Preuss and a party of men. When we had 

 dragged our boat a mile or two over the sands, I 

 abandoned the impossible undertaking, and waited 

 for the arrival of the party, when we packed up our 

 boat and equipage, and at nine o'clock were again 

 moving along on our land journey. We continued 

 along the valley on the right bank of the Sweet 

 Water, where the formation, as already described, 

 consists of a grayish micaceous sandstone and fine- 

 grained conglomerate and marl. We passed over a 

 ridge which borders or constitutes the river hills 



of the Platte, consisting of huge blocks. 60 or 80 

 feet cube, of decomposing granite. The cement 

 which united them was probably of easier decomposi- 

 tion, and has disappeared and left them isolate, and 

 separated by small spaces. Numerous horns of the 

 mountain goat were lying among the rocks ; and in 

 the ravines were cedars, whose trunks were of extra- 

 ordinary size. From this ridge we descended to a 

 small open plain, at the mouth of the Sweet Water, 

 which rushed with a rapid current into the Platte, 

 here flowing along in a broad and apparently deep 

 stream, which seemed, from its turbid appearance, to 

 be considerably swollen. I obtained here some as- 

 tronomical observations, and the afternoon was spent 

 in getting our boat ready for navigation the next day. 

 24th. We started before sunrise, intending to 

 breakfast at Goat Island. I had directed the land 

 party, in charge of Bernier, to proceed to this place, 

 where they were to remain should they find no note 

 to apprise them of our having passed. In the event 

 of receiving this information, they were to continue 

 their route, passing by certain places which had been 

 designated. Mr. Preuss accompanied me, and with 

 us were five of my best men. Here appeared no 

 scarcity of water, and we took on board, with various 

 instruments and baggage, provisions for ten or twelve 

 days. We paddled down the river rapidly, for our 

 little craft was light as a duck on the water ; and the 

 Bun had been some time risen, when we heard before 

 us a hollow roar, which we supposed to be that of a 

 fall, of which we had heard a vague rumor, but whose 

 exact locality no one had been able to describe to us. 

 We were approaching a ridge, through which the 

 river passes by a place called "canon" (pronounced 

 Icanyon) a Spanish word, signifying a piece of artil- 

 lery, the barrel of a gun, or any kind of tube, and 

 which in this country had been adopted to describe 

 the passage of a river between perpendicular rocks of 

 great height which frequently approach each other so 

 closely overhead as to form a kind of tunnel over the 

 stream, which foams along below, half choked up by 

 fallen fragments. Between the mouth of the Sweet 

 Water and Goat Island there is probably a fall of 

 8QO feet, and that was principally made in the canons 

 before us ; as, without them, the water was compara- 

 tively smooth. As we neared the ridge, the river 

 made a sudden turn, and swept squarely down 

 against one of the walls of the canon with great 

 velocity, and so steep a descent that it had to the 

 eye the appearance of an inclined plane. When we 

 launched into this, the men jumped overboard to 

 check the velocity of the boat, but were soon in water 

 up to their necks, and our boat ran on. But we suc- 

 ceeded in bringing her to a small point of rocks on 

 the right, at the mouth of the canon. Here was a kind 

 of elevated sand beach, not many yards square, backed 

 by the rocks; and around the point the river swept 

 at a right angle. Trunks of trees deposited on jutting 

 points, 20 or 30 feet above, and other marks showed 

 that tlie water here frequently rose to a consider- 

 able height. The ridge was of the same decompos- 

 ing granite already mentioned, and the water had 

 worked the surface, in many places, into a wavy sur- 

 face of ridges and holes. We ascended the rocks to 

 reconnoitre the ground, and from the summit the pas- 

 sage appeared to be a continued cataract, foaming over 

 many obstructions, and broken by a number of small 

 falls. We saw nowhere a fall answering to that which 

 had been described to us as having 20 or 25 feet; 

 but still concluded this to be the place in question, as, 

 in the season of floods, the rush of the river against 

 the wall would produce a great rise ; and the waters, 

 reflected squarely off, would descend through the pas- 

 sage in a sheet of foam, having every appearance of a 

 large fall. It would have been a work of great time 

 and labor to pack our baggage across the ridge, and I 

 determined to run the canon. We all again embarked, 

 and at first attempted to check the way of the boat ; 

 but the water swept through with so much violence 

 that we narrowly escaped being swamped, and were 

 obliged to let her go in the full force of the current, 





